Photography

Omnipresent and seemingly so natural in the smartphone era, the history of photography remains a relatively recent occurrence in comparison with the history of mankind.

Although it has been said that the technique’s early stages began at the start of the 19th century, we owe its invention to Louis Daguerre in 1839. An associate of Niepce, he improved darkroom exposure time and modified the chemical elements necessary for the development of photographs. The daguerreotype was revealed to the general public on 7th January 1839 during a meeting at the French Academy of Sciences. Worldwide success was quick to follow.

Photo studios opened everywhere and the richest and most influential families at the time had their portrait taken in black and white.

Over time, the process took less and less time and the material needed less and less space. Tripods were eventually no longer necessary. In 1889, Eastman Kodak launched a portable camera with a film roll and photography took a completely new form.

Artists seized this new opportunity and art photography quickly started to develop.

The 20th century is characterised by the work of some of the most important photographers: Walker Evans, Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Raymond Depardon and of course Robert Doisneau. They succeeded incompletely transforming our vision of the world. They marked the end of one world and opened the way for another in which we could determine the contours and colours in of the world in our own unique ways. They showed us social realities and tragedies but they also immortalised the magic of Hollywood and the iconic men and women of their time.

Their successors followed in their footsteps, inspired by their unique framing and composition techniques. The creative possibilities of photography were yet again multiplied by the latest digital developments. Certain photographers maintained their steadfast love for the silver Leica cameras but many swapped them for sharper focus of reflex cameras and decided to play around in post-production to modify the photo’s characteristics and final image.

Artsper’s selection is representative of international photography from the 1950s to the current day. Made up of thousands of works, it covers a whole host of artistic processes, from reporting, fashion photography, contemporary documentary work, black and white photography to works which blur the lines between photography and other visual arts.

Two principles can be used to guide you when choosing a work of art photography: you can choose to prioritise the diversity of artistic approaches, or to create ensembles, by buying entire series enabling you to acquire coherent monographic collections.

Whether with portraits, romantic landscapes, urban imagery, daily life or reporting events, photography ensures the faithful representation of oneself or of those around us. Amongst many others, you will find the following names in our selection of famous photographers: Liu Bolin, Li Wei, the French photographer Claude Levèque, Helmut Newton, Ralph Gibson and in the Emerging artists category: Theo Haggai, Ren Hang, Clarisse Rebotier and Thomas Subtil.

Artsper is a marketplace dedicated to the online sale of contemporary artworks. Art galleries, easily sell your work online. Art amateurs, buy paintings, art photography and even contemporary sculpture from a choice of thousands of artworks online, all carefully selected from the best artists of today!